'Personal Encounters With An Architect of Genocide', this is a chilling portrait of Radovan Karadzic, giving us an eye-opening new context not only for the Bosnian War, but also how fear can be harnessed and diverted to violent political ends. A remarkable blend of biography, history and psychiatry, the book is based on extraordinary access to a notorious Serbian leader and is scrupulously researched by this skilled interviewer. Stern explores the boundaries of good and evil through hours of interviews with the convicted mass murderer and complex emotions are unleashed on both sides as the interviewer circles a wily subject charmed at skill, obfuscation, misdirection and intimidation. It is an investigation into the nature of violence, terror and trauma. Between October 2014 and November 2016, global terrorism expert Jessica Stern held this series of conversations in a prison cell in The Hague with the Bosnian Serb former politician who had been indicted for genocide and other war crimes. The encounter would alter her understandings of the mechanics of fear, motivations of violence and the psychology of those who perpetrate mass atrocities on a state level who target non-combatants in violation of ethical norms and international law. How do leaders persuade ordinary people to kill their neighbours? What happens when an ethnic or racial group loses its dominant position in society? How do leaders harness fear and weaponize it and target minorities with violence? What is the 'eco system' that creates and nurtures genocidal leaders and could anything about their personal histories, personalities or exposure to historical trauma shed light on their behaviour? Karadzic was once a brilliant and often charming psychiatrist and poet who spent 12 years in hiding, disguising himself as an energy healer. A deeply insightful and chilling book. 304pp.

Rare photographs from wartime archives, many of which are very distressing showing heaps of dead bodies, elderly Jews, women and children, wearing the star of David waiting selection on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Sonderkommandos assisted the newly arrived transports. The other principal groups of 'helpers' were Kapos and Trawniki. The Nazis' vast concentration camp network and later the Final Solution programme made heavy demands on the SS whose responsibility it was. The use of 'overseers' minimised costs and enabled the camps to run with fewer SS personnel. The super commandoes' duties included unloading Jews from trains, collecting their possessions and sorting them for storage. Under the supervision of the SS, their main assignment was to run the gas chambers and crematoria. The Kapos oversaw the Sonderkommandos. Many were originally prisoner functionaries recruited from violent criminal gangs and they had a well-deserved reputation for brutality. The third group known as Trawniki or Trawnikimänner were Central and Eastern European collaborators recruited from Russian PoW camps. While some served in a military capacity, others played an instrumental role in the Holocaust programme, rounding up and transporting Jews from the ghettos to the concentration camps. Whilst the Sonderkommandos were forced to undertake various grisly tasks, with the added fear of being killed at any moment, the Kapos and Trawniki competed without scruple to maintain the favour of their SS masters while pitting victim against victim. Very little text, the book is in the Images of War series and reproduces approximately 200 rare contemporary archive images of forced labour, known personnel and very harrowing images such as skeletal corpses being dragged in irons by the head and pushed into the oven for incineration (which normally took 45 minutes to one hour). 114pp, large softback.

The author's paternal great grandparents, Charles Ernest Hardy and Edwin Hall Bailey, both worked in collieries in the Barnsley area as did their descendants. At the end of 2017 author Jane Ainsworth transcribed a ledger containing the minutes of the Colliers' Relief Fund Committee of the 1847 Oaks Colliery Explosion for Barnsley Archives. This stimulated her empathy with and curiosity about the lives of the people referred to in the Minutes, widows, orphans and a few survivors of the disaster as well as the 73 victims. Despite the challenge of limited early records, she fleshed out the stories and pays tribute to the families of mineworkers whose lives at the time were considered of little value to the colliery owners and managers. She has created a memorial book like no other and a contribution to Barnsley's mining heritage. She has researched dozens of images which are reproduced to the best possible quality given their age, many woodcuts, images of graves and newspaper articles to tell the story of Richard and Thomas Beardshal, Francis Birtles, Robert Hazle (Hessle), William, William, John and Luke Roe (Wroe) from the family who suffered the largest loss of life with four members killed in the explosion on 5th March 1847. For each there are details of who they married and in which church, how many children and how intertwined the families were and how widows like Rebecca Roe (1804-1881) would have struggled to support her family, even with relief from the Subscriptions Fund. She returned to Alfreton with her children to avoid the threat of being admitted to Barnsley Union Workhouse, but she suffered another three deaths there. Also includes hand drawn maps and early views of Barnsley in etchings. 270 page large softback.

The spy craft expert Schlesinger has produced the first book to fully examine the oldest and consistently effective piece of tradecraft, from the ancient world to cyber seductions. While the so-called 'honey trap' is a Hollywood cliché, it is also employed by virtually every intelligence service in times of war and peace. The work of femmes fatales and Romeo spies have shaped policy and history through seduction, betrayal and scandal. 'Ashamed? Not in the least. My superiors told me that the results of my work saved thousands of British and American lives... Wars are not won by respectable methods' - Amy Elizabeth Thorpe (Betty Pack), participant in a honey trap run by British and American intelligence services during WW2. The Stasi proved particularly adept in employing Romeo spies to romance women with access to secrets. More recently in 2013 FBI wire traps caught two Russian SVR lamenting the more mundane aspects of spy work and not receiving permission to play a Romeo spy. Today the Mata Hari tale has expanded into pop culture and with the increased portability of cameras, honey traps can now be more effectively executed and indeed there no longer needs to be physical contact. From the Bible's Judith and Delilah, Pandora, Chinese, Greek and Indian brothels and myths of love-allurement, here are merry monarchs, plotters and pimps, the Flying Squadron created by Catherine de Medici of gorgeous women despatched to foreign and domestic leaders acting as sexual shock groups, the Restoration, Hamilton in America before we see the modern era. 352 magnificent large pages.

The Mr Big of Criminal Briefs offers a fascinating insight into life at the top of the profession, lifting the lid on the psychology of those who end up on the wrong side of the law - and those who defend them. Outsiders might wonder about how criminal defence lawyers deal with potentially dangerous clients, what happens behind the scenes when building a defence, and that age-old moral dilemma, how can a lawyer defend someone they think is guilty. But what is life really like for those tasked with representing the shadowy underbelly of society? For over 40 years, criminal defence solicitor Henry Milner has been the go-to lawyer for some of Britain's most notorious criminals, including Kenneth Noye and the Brink's-Mat robbers, Freddie Foreman, John 'Goldfinger' Palmer, and the gang behind the Millennium Dome raid. He evokes a bygone era of the criminal justice system with plenty of wry self-deprecating humour, sometimes very funny and never ever dull. 263pp, colour photos.

Mariella Novotny was found dead with her face in a bowl of milk pudding in February 1983. She was in the process of writing her memoirs. 'It's dynamite!' Christine Keeler said, 'I think it was murder...most probably by the CIA.' In 1961, Mariella was an underage hooker engaging in sexual relations with President John F. Kennedy, the most powerful man in the world. She was believed to be part of a vice ring set up by an alleged Communist agent who was also a well-known British film producer. FBI officers called their investigation 'The Bow-Tie Case'. Two years later the young 'Monroe lookalike' played a major part in another sex scandal with implications for national security - the Profumo Affair. Mariella was the hostess of the Man in the Mask party. She was a close friend of Stephen Ward, the osteopath and pander to high society, another putative whistle-blower who died in suspicious circumstances. In the late 1960s, she gave birth to the illegitimate child of Eddie Chapman (Agent Zigzag), England's most successful wartime double agent. Between 1975 and 1978 she was working undercover for Operation Countryman, an investigation into police corruption in the Flying Squad. Her chief target was the author's grandfather, Charlie Taylor, a London conman who had high-ranking officers in his deep pockets. Mariella brought them all down. An excerpt from the chapter entitled Black Power and Rotting Hill: 'Michael came to London. He worked his way into the veins of criminal society. In Notting Hill, he managed prostitutes, ran gambling houses, sold drugs and collected rent for the property racketeer Peter Rachman, who had already had a go at bedding Mariella and blackmailing Hod.' Includes colour photos including Soho in the early 60s and Mariella on her wedding day to Hod Dibben. 253 pages.

Life, sex, race, power, free speech, protest, privacy, democracy, sovereignty, death. Society shapes law, and law shapes society. We like to imagine that progress comes about when Parliament spots a looming groundswell in public opinion and responds by changing the laws that govern our daily lives. This is not always true. In his fascinating book, Inigo Bing unravels 10 legal cases in which the decisions of judges or a jury either heralded a shift in outlook, or forced Parliament to respond to simmering social change. The cases include Conjoined Twins, Lady Chatterley on Trial, The Cricketer and the Hotel, The Pilot Officer and the Home Secretary, The Thalidomide Scandal, Peaceful Protest in a Demographic Society, Spanish Ships and Metric Martyrs with regard to sovereignty and Death and Euthanasia. Taken together these stories provide 80 years of insight into the British political, social and cultural history, some cases exploring when rapid technological change outpaces government or urgent ethical dilemmas. All of them have had a lasting impact on the society in which we live. Inigo Bing is a respected judge. 316pp.

Imagine how different your life would be if you knew when someone was lying or telling you the truth. Former CIA agents Philip Houston, Mike Floyd and Susan Carnicero are among the world's best at recognising deceptive behaviour. Their book chronicles the fascinating story of how they used a methodology Houston developed to detect deception in counter-terrorism and criminal investigation realms, and how these techniques can be applied in our daily and business lives. Through thrilling anecdotes from their careers in counter intelligence, they provide a foolproof means of identifying deceptive behaviour, showing readers how to study nuances, both verbal and non-verbal, including hands to the face in response to a question, grooming gestures, invoking religion (I swear to God), repeating the question, qualifiers (basically) and much more. As your level of understanding increases you will be able to spot the subtleties of liars far more easily. 258pp, paperback.

We may well have heard of the Mastersons and Earps, but what about the Rangers, Sheriffs and other lawmakers in the early American West during its 19th century heyday? 'Treadwell starts with the first US Marshal, Robert Forsyth, who was also the first to die in service and then Colonel Charles Lynch who gave his name to extra-judicial punishment. One of the most famous and intimidating lawmen was 'Wild Bill' Hickok who was far from the upstanding citizen of popular culture. The town of Tombstone features in a group of tales involving various Earp brothers including Wyatt. Other famous names include Pat Garrett and Bat Masterson, Tom Smith, William Breakenridge, former slaves Bass Reeves and Grant Johnson, and the wonderfully named John Slaughter. There were Marshals, City Marshals, Constables, and County Sheriffs elected by citizens to keep the peace within the county. There were also the Texas Rangers and Arizona Rangers who operated under the jurisdiction of their respective State Governors and later US Marshals who were appointed by the President of the United States and had the authority to operate anywhere in the USA and deal with federal crime. These lawmen had to deal with the likes of the Dalton Gang, the James Brothers and the Rufus Buck Gang who thought nothing of raping and murdering innocent people just for the hell of it. These outlaws would frequently hide in Indian Territory where there was no law to extradite them. There Judge Isacc Parker administered the rules with an iron fist - the gallows at Fort Smith laid testament to his work. Peace in the Wild West was often determined only by the individual's skill with a gun and their courage. 246pp, many historical photos.

J. B. Priestley said 'It was hot news indeed; something was happening for the first time in world history. I am no connoisseur of murder, but I fancy that in the grisly annals Crippen and his actual crime would not be given a prominent place; it is what happened afterwards that is important.' It was an open-and-shut case. Hawley Harvey Crippen, an American quack doctor had murdered his wife, the music hall performer Belle Elmore, and buried parts of her body in the coal cellar of their North London home. But by the time the remains were discovered he had fled the country with his mistress, disguised as his son. After a thrilling chase across the ocean, he was caught, returned to England, tried and hanged, forever remembered as the quintessential domestic murderer. But why did he leave only some of the body in his house, when he had successfully disposed of the head, limbs and bones elsewhere? Why did he stick so doggedly to a plea of complete innocence, when he might have made a sympathetic case for manslaughter? Why did he make no effort to cover his tracks if he really had been planning a murder? These are the tantalising questions that remain in a mystery nearly 100 years old. New DNA tests have been conducted in America which exploded everything we thought we knew for sure about the case and this book is the first to make full use of this astonishing new evidence. Written with the assistance of scientists, experts in law, toxicology and mortuary science. 236pp, photos.